The story’s twists and interpretations of Christian lore sent it rocketing up charts. It tackled what felt too highbrow for the layman and made it easy-to-follow and understandable.
Readers were introduced to an underground group devoted to protecting the alleged descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene — based on the heretical claim that the two were married and had a child; secrets hidden behind cleverly designed puzzles; and a psychotic killer on the loose, all packed in short, snappy chapters that could be devoured in a single sitting.
When The Da Vinci Code hit bookstore shelves in 2003, it was immediately slammed by critics and members of the Catholic Church alike. Accused of slandering and misrepresenting Christianity and its icons and likened to literary diarrhoea by writer and comedian Stephen Fry, it still became one of the best-selling books of the early 2000s.
What was it that drew so many to pick up Dan Brown’s fourth novel? The tale follows protagonist Robert Langdon, the world’s only professor of Religious Iconology and Symbology, who is falsely accused of murder and has to team up with police cryptologist Sophie Neveu to uncover a conspiracy of secret societies long thought defunct.
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